Out of curiosity, what time do other regions/states meets start? I posted on Facebook before our last meet that we would be having our closest meet of the year to my home location (still an hour away). Yesterday I talked to two friends who said they would have gone to watch - if competition hadn't started at 6am and been done by noon. I realize that rinks have sessions and want us out and gone in time, but this may be impacting things as well. I've heard the announcements at session that people can come watch for free, but how many people are motivated to get up before the sun to watch a sport they have no connection to?

Same here, 6am-noon or 1pm. For a change our coming meet this weekend does not start until 9:30 am and elite does not skate until after 6pm with a break from 4 to 6 or so.
Good it's not in a rink so they can do want they want with the times.
Bad the place they have is short on seating room.
Same place they have been having NSC.

Same here, 6am-noon or 1pm. For a change our coming meet this weekend does not start until 9:30 am and elite does not skate until after 6pm with a break from 4 to 6 or so.
Good it's not in a rink so they can do want they want with the times.
Bad the place they have is short on seating room.
Same place they have been having NSC.

Do they not have the balcony open? I know that doesn't work well for people on skates, but there's plenty of seating up there for spectators. I also heard that the indoor bathrooms were out of commission (or at least non-accessible.)

Almost all indoor inline meets start at 6am, which is the earliest allowed. Races are early in the day because rinks need paying customers (meets pay very little, meet spectators usually nothing), but most paying customers aren't interested in early hours. Most indoor meets last until late morning or early afternoon, so anyone who wants to watch can come the, for a few hours, which is enough for almost all casual spectators.

Do they not have the balcony open? I know that doesn't work well for people on skates, but there's plenty of seating up there for spectators. I also heard that the indoor bathrooms were out of commission (or at least non-accessible.)

As far as I know the balcony will be open but from what I can tell you only get a view if you are on the rail and then only the other side of the floor.
They better have the rest rooms open.

As far as I know the balcony will be open but from what I can tell you only get a view if you are on the rail and then only the other side of the floor.
They better have the rest rooms open.

There's plenty of room upstairs to get good views, but, yes, the best view from upstairs is usually from the middle of the skinny sides of the floor, close to the rails. You'll miss some part of the floor from just about anywhere else.

I had heard that the restroom situation is mostly port-a-potties outside. Hope it doesn't rain.

I would like to add one thing I have noticed. Playgrounds for children today are safe and virtually sterile. Not saying this is a bad thing, but is certainly a symptom of something I feel is important to throw out there.

When I was a child (59 years old now) playgrounds had "jungle-gyms" made from tubular steel with jagged edges and carriage bolts with nuts holding them together. How many times have you old-timers cut yourselves on those screws playing on a jungle-gym? And if you fell, you fell into dirt, or onto concrete. And your parents weren't too worried about you either. Broke an arm? Mom/Dad takes you in to fix it and later takes you to the same playground, maybe even while still wearing the cast on your arm. Scratches and bruises? Brush burns? Just a normal part of growing up.

Today's parents are WEIRD! Kids playgrounds are made of smooth, rounded edges and the ground under them is RUBBER. No one gets cut, bruised, broken, or skinned up anymore. These sterile playgrounds would not exist if they were not desired by a lot of people. Sure, they help avoid lawsuits as well.

My point (finally) is that skating can't happen on a rubber floor. Skating happens on concrete, tarmac, and rock hard rink floors. Maybe wood floors but still, that ain't forgiving like rubber. So I go out and skate knowing full well that sooner or later, I'm gonna get a skinned knee or elbow, maybe a giant bruise on my arse. But i don't care. And if I had kids, i wouldn't care. But most parents today DEMAND rubber floors, air bags in cars, baby seats the size and shape of NASA astronaut launch chairs, child-proof medicine bottles, tamper-proof containers for food and beverage, and a host of other SAFETY standards. Not saying this is a bad thing, but it does create a MINDSET that skating can not be made safe on hard surfaces - then throw in the fact that braking on skates is an advanced maneuver and there you have it. NOT SAFE. So parents choose other things that LOOK or SEEM to be less dangerous.

I agree with everything you said Joey. It seems everyone is sue happy these days. Always wanting to blame someone else for things that actually have no one to blame. Or worse yet, trying to blame someone else for something that is obviously their own fault.

I don't know, if I can add much to the discussion and if it has not been mentioned yet, but on top of lacking infrastructure and all you what often seems to lack is an example by the parents. If kids see at home a couch potato mother and/or father who, while looking at the telly, tell them to dump their Playstation/Xbox/smartphone and go out and play or do some sport/rollerskating... it does not surprise me that they will object and do as their parents do.
Conversly, if they see that mom and dad have fun working out, go run, skate, bike and play outside a lot themselves they are going to consider this is a normal life-style and will try to join their parents, or at least find their own sport. Maybe like that they will get to trying out skates, or even speed skates...?

But what do I know, my baby (21 months old) is too young to put her on skates. She still has some year or two (but not more!) before daddy takes her skating